Some weight carrying thoughts, or questions

Not completely... Still paying him off until I can bring him home. He's lame due to an injury sustained during turnout anyway :( poor baby. He probably did it breaking through a fence!
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Not a poor baby then! Self inflicted

You didn't tell me you were paying him off! Shame on you Birdz ;) That's awesome!
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People really need to quit spouting off that 20% nonsense, do you even know the source ? Or are you just constantly regurgitating it because the last person did. Just one of those completely false old wives tales with no basis in science that gets repeated over and over and over.
SO a fat out of shape pasture puff can carry more weight than a trained conditioned horse that weighs less ?
So every single male western rider int he country is wrong and overloading anythign but the Budweiser Clydesdale ?
So for several hundred years when horses averaged about 14 hands, and probably 700-800 lbs, an actual unit of measure was a "Horse weight"(200 lbs) using in the pack horse transport industry.
Oh and BTW, a study on the 100 mile Tevis endurance race, with several hundred riders a year going back ten years, probably one of the hardest races int he world. Found ZERO nadda, nix nine frankenstein correlation between rider weight percentages up to around 32% ( highest percent studied) and completion rates. Or in top 10 finishers.

Somebody posted a different way of calculating somewhere here. Bodyweight divided by circumference of mid cannon bone divided by 2. If the result is less than 75 you're good to go, and anything over 80 is too heavy.
But, that also means an overweight horse could carry more weight which I find highly unlikely.

I do remember reading about a test the army did after WW II, 14 h Arabs carried 240 lbs over all kinds of terrain over several days without any problems. Don't quote me on the numbers, tho, but it was quite high.

I think it has a lot more to do with how the horse is built. And its fitness level and breed.

Horses

I actually like this method, it is calculating the weight of both horse and rider and working out the carrying ability by the amount of bone.

That is actually fairer than the 20% rule because simply using those numbers a fat horse could be calculated as being able to carry more than a thin horse

Oops, forgot to add weight of rider and tack
So, it is:
Weight of horse, rider and tack divided by circumference of mid cannon divided by 2

Atill pretty ,meaningless as most people wouldnt know the body weight of their horse if it fell on them. Weight tapes are a joke, and how many people put their horses on an actual scale ? I have, but as muscles, fat and hydration levels change those numbers change also. A 920lb horse can loose 40 to 50 lbs of water pretty quickly.
Breed, confirmation, condition, age, temperature, terrain, all have a much greater influence on load ability than some arbitrary pulled out of thin air percent.

BTW Gen George McClellan, an admitted horse lover and man hater did a study using data collected in the summer in the soutwest, that found Calvary horses, could carry 20 % all day every day, and only be fed at night and last for months with out breaking down. Of course again, how did he weigh the horses ? And when did he weigh them morning or after being rode all day. Anyway he published an Army cavalry manual using those numbers and they have been getting repeated as the gospel ever sense.
Keep in mind this self proclaimed "expert" in cavalry consistently had his cavalry embarrassed by the poor unfortunate unedumacated southern cavalry.

Here's a link to a weight estimator The Horse | Weight Calculator and here's a formula for calculating a horse's weight for a horse older than one year (heart girth x heart girth x body length)/330=estimated body weight in pounds. For a weanling, divide by 280, and for a yearling, divide by 301.

not so sure if it's fairer.
Example:
1000lbs horse: 20%=200lbs
1000lbs horse+ 220lbsrider+40lbs tack : 8" cannon : 2=78.75, so still in the range.
So according to that way, a 1000lbs horse with a not so strong bone(for his weight) could carry 260lbs.
1200lbs horse+250lbs rider+40lbs tack: 9" bone comes out to 82.78, so too heavy.